Phylogenetic analyses of the hemagglutinin gene of wild-type strains of canine distemper virus in southern Brazil.

This study examined the phylogenetic relationship of strains of canine distemper virus (CDV) collected from Paraná State, Brazil, based on the hemagglutinin gene. Urine samples were collected from 4 dogs from northern Paraná State that demonstrated clinical manifestations of canine distemper. The participation of CDV was initially confirmed by RT-PCR targeting the nucleocapsid protein, after which the complete hemagglutinin gene was sequenced from each sample. Sequences were deposited in and compared with those already in GenBank. Phylogenetic analyses, using amino acid and nucleotide sequences based on the hemagglutinin gene, demonstrated that these strains of CDV are closely related to those from the Europe 1 lineage of CDV, with marked differences from other recognized geographical clusters of CDV isolates and from the vaccine strains. The strains of CDV from this region of southern Brazil appear to be related to those from Europe 1.